Classic Mistake by Amy Myers Read Free Book Online

later.’
    ‘She could have brought a lover with her,’ Cara said dispassionately.
    From her face she was longing for me to shoot this down, which I could with ease. ‘Why on earth would any lover want to assist in murder if she and Carlos were splitting up anyway? No, this business deal is much more likely – thank heavens.’ I’d no wish to go chasing Eva’s lovers.
    Cara cheered up. ‘Eva told me she and Carlos knew a man called James Fever, who owned the pub Carlos performed at before he did a runner. Would he be a candidate?’
    ‘Hardly. He’s no longer alive. He took over from the earlier manager, Tony Wilson, who served fifteen years for murder. I must have met Fever. In fact, in my righteous fury I think I went over to tackle him when Eva hopped it, because I thought he’d encouraged it. As far as I recall, he put me right and gave me a free pint to calm me down.’
    ‘Nevertheless,’ Cara said firmly, ‘whether Eva did or not have old friends to call on round here, she told me that Carlos most certainly did, so we must follow that up.
You
can help out there.’
    ‘OK by me.’ That was sorted then. Cara was on the warpath.
    Then she became my Cara again. ‘Jack, do you really think Eva could have had something to do with Carlos’s death?’
    No point in beating about the bush, and we were in this together. ‘She’s capable and stupid enough to have let rip, but whether she did or not – well, who knows? If she did bring a pistol with her … I’ll find out what’s happening on the police investigation,’
I finished hastily, seeing her face fall. Then I stepped awkwardly out of my comfort zone – and probably hers. ‘And you, daughter mine, are you happy in Suffolk?’
    ‘Yes, and for ever after.’ She laughed, which for once made me struggle with resentment at having missed so many years of her life. For what? Had they ill-treated her, ignored her, cosseted her? As Cara never talked about it, I wasn’t foolish enough to cross-examine her further. But I had my doubts, and that laugh had sounded just a trifle forced.
    ‘Just a phrase,’ she added airily. ‘I’m not a great hand at being Mother Earth though, so Harry shoulders most of that. I work part-time for a local publisher, which suits me fine, and then help Harry out the rest of the week. We’re running a farm shop now.’
    ‘Don’t miss the bright lights of London?’
    ‘No way.’
    ‘What if Eva …?’ No, that was a step too far. Cara had retreated into Miss Self-Assurance again, and I didn’t want to throw her off with a nightmare that might never happen. I need not have worried.
    ‘Wants to move in with Harry and me?’ she picked up. ‘I’ll refuse, don’t worry.’ She looked closely at me. ‘And you need not worry about her moving in with you again either. She’s determined to return to The Family.’
    My turn to laugh partly in relief. The Family was a joke between us, and I had no doubt it would close its protective arms around Eva in due course, but it was good to hear this reaffirmed. Then I sobered up. ‘Suppose she really did kill Carlos and it’s me who finds the evidence?’
    She came over to me and kissed me in a motherly sort of way. ‘We’ll sort this together, Jack. And now,’ she added, ‘drive me back to the station, will you? I fancy a lift in that Gordon-Keeble of yours.’
    ‘Good taste,’ I said approvingly. As Dad had bought it from its first owner in the late 1960s, I had known it all my life. It felt a family car therefore, and it was only fitting that its rare outing (due to an accident that had left it fragile) should be for Cara’s benefit – even if she had ordered her ‘taxi’ in her best schoolteacher tones.
    All went quiet for a day or two, which was both a relief and a worrying sign. Silence is not always golden: sometimes it’s creepy. I tried to contact Brandon in vain; he replied with a put-off message that told me nothing. Cara had told me she would let me know